Nick Diaz Caricature

Some of those who know me personally will know I've been following the UFC for a while now. Yes, I know that seems odd, a lanky, arty type who likes watching cagefighting? Well yes, it's true. I love it.


With my newfound interest in caricature I noticed some interesting faces in the sport. Years of combat results in crooked noses, buildups of scar tissue around the brow and hard lumpy ears from all the wrestling. Add to this the pronounced, animalistic look of the mouth once there is a mouthguard in and you've got some pretty amazing faces that all share some common traits. Possibly there is also an underlying genetic component defined by testosterone levels, or functionality for fighting. Whatever it is, I find it fascinating. So I decided to draw a couple of them.

Here is the first fighter caricature - Nick Diaz.




Nick Diaz on Wikipedia

Star Wars Caricature

Now that I spend a lot of my daytime hours working on environments, I've taken to working on my figure work in the evenings to keep things interesting. I watched some tutorials and sketched a whole bunch of naked people. With a growing stack of life drawings gathering dust in a wardrobe I wanted to start applying the learning to create some new things.

I developed an interest in caricature when I met Gil Rimmer. He was working for the same company at the time, albeit on a different show. I really liked the clear, bold statements he made with his art and I became curious to try out caricature for myself.

My first attempt came with Secret Santa at work. From the hat, I pulled the name of a production coordinator who is a huge star wars fanboy. So for his present he got this painting, along with the note: "For Deacon. In the Cantina or the bedroom, he always fires first".

It was created super fast and is far from perfect. I was happy with my first attempt and I really enjoyed doing it which made me want to keep going and create some more...

You can see Gil Rimmer's impressive animation portfolio here.

If you want to work on your own figure work, the tutorials I have been watching are available for free on proko.com. Stan Prokopenko does a fantastic job of simplifying the process; explaining the thinking behind the learning and keeping a great sense of humour throughout. I highly recommend his videos, and watching them in the order that he suggests here.

White CLoud Worlds Volume 3!

Hey guys, 

I have some exciting news to share. WCW Volume 3 is coming! The art has been submitted and vetted and the layouts are done. This is the biggest, baddest volume yet! Paul and the team have decided to launch this one through Kickstarter. The book has been self funded every time, but with the added size and therefore costs involved this time the team are looking to get the fans in on the goods a little earlier. 

This is probably the cheapest you will be able to purchase the book, I will be buying a few through here as Christmas gifts (love you mom!). There are also a heap of purchasing options, including a set of all three books, some copies of Volume 3 bundled with prints, original art and even custom portraits from Paul Tobin himself. If you want to get a copy of the new volume, this is a really good time to do so! The bundled options are selling out fast though so go have a looky!

I've got a couple of pages in there again, and there is a tease of a new piece I did if  you scroll down the kickstarter page (hint: watch out for the cowboy image...). 

Please share the kickstarter with any you might think are intereseted! Here's the link:

White Clouds Worlds Volume 3 on Kickstarter